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Jokowi slams officials over poor COVID-19 budget planning and spending, again
“This shows that ministries and government institutions still do not have a sense of urgency. Officials are still fixated on their day-to-day duties.” Jokowi said.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has once again called on his Cabinet to accelerate efforts to mitigate the wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. (Handout/-)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has once again expressed his disappointment in his Cabinet over its poor utilization of funds allocated for the country’s COVID-19 response.
“Only around Rp 141 trillion has been spent, or 20 percent from the provided budget. That is a very small amount,” Jokowi said prior to a limited Cabinet meeting on Monday. “This shows that ministries and government institutions still do not have a sense of urgency. Officials are still fixated on their day-to-day duties.”
He said each minister should plan their budgets in detail, “so that crisis management can be done quickly.”
He went on to say that his administration encouraged the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) – a state-sponsored organization comprising community leaders and officials’ wives – to disseminate information on the importance of complying with health protocols, especially the importance of wearing masks, to neighborhood communities.
Jokowi also said the Cabinet should be concerned about the country's high COVID-19 fatality rate. “The country’s fatality rate is 4.7 percent, or 0.8 [percentage points] higher than the global fatality rate. This is something we should all work on,” he said.
According to the official government count, Indonesia has recorded 113,134 cases and 5,302 deaths as of Monday.
